Varkonia: Difference between revisions

The Red Duke of Varkonia was particularly offended by this revelation, because he had vouched for ChrisChrispie's innocence at a UNC meeting. The Red Duke, seeing this as a betrayal of trust by Chris, discussed possible retaliatory measures against Icenia for Chris's role in inflicting harm on a UNC-ally. One of these potential options was disabling the vault Icenia was building, which was referred to as a "Big dick maneuver" by the Red Duke. While the UNC neve evennever brought this idea to a formal vote, the idea leaked out and reflected unfavorably upon Varkonia and the UNC as a whole. Tensions began building inside the UNC but ultimately nothing came about. A measure was proposed in the Varkonian Senate to intervene in the drama that was unfolding in the Clown Wars, but the measure did not pass. As a result, the matter was let go, and Icenia and Varkonia would continue to have frosty relations for some time. Varkonia began having improved relations with Swiftfizz after this incident, as he had provided insight into the matter with Icenia, was a good pvper, and was a familiar friendly player from prior iterations.

The biggest source of trouble during this time was from Corvus, specifically Evocator. Evocator had been seeking to get Papa_Pound free from Hjaltland for some time, and had come up with a plan to get Thoths, a mutual friend of Hjaltland and Corvus, pearled and then trade Thoth's freedom for Papa's freedom. To pull this off, Evocator got in touch with Varkonia and used the drama in New SoviaIcenia as cover for this plan for Thoths to be justifiably pearled. Thoths pearled BritishwandererBritishWanderer in Icenia, and was later himself pearled and held in Varkonia, with BritishWanderer being freed. Varkonia would hold him until agreements were made with Hjaltland to free Papa. However, towards the end of the month, it became clear that Evocator had hostile intentions behind wanting to free Papa. On top of that, Swiftfizz also revealed that Evocator, Thoths, and others in Corvus had been alt raiding, and had asked if Swift wanted to join them. Targets of the alt-raiding included the eastern provinces of SPQR and the chan-states in the east of the map. They denied this publicly, until swift later revealed screenshots of his conversation in which Thoths was unhappy with Swift for posting the prior screenshots showing they were alt raiders, and that Thoths had offered accounts to Swift to participate in the alt raiding.

Major drama unfolded as a result of this event. Varkonia had just pearled the head of state of a fellow voting ally in the UNC, without informing anyone in the UNC about it ahead of time, out of concern it could be leaked and render the operation inoperative. Immediately following this action, Varkonia held an emergency UNC to brief everyone on what happened and why. Evocator was removed from the leadership of the UNC and Gjum took his place. In the meeting, the Red Duke explained the reasoning and talked about his discussions with Frensin. It boiled down to Evocator and Thoths alt raiding SPQR, as well as Evo's plans for an HCF invasion and an attack on Hjaltland. At first things went well and people generally agreed. A post was made on the subreddit explaining the situation<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/civclassics/comments/c8gdkq/unc_thwarts_plot/</ref>. However, later on the mood changed. SPQR said it was actually not concerned about Evocator and co raiding them, and that they would not charge themhim or Thoths. This caused significant damage to Varkonia's justification. It meant that technically speaking the UNC was no longer obligated to care about the drama because it now concerned a plan regarding Hjaltland, as opposed to a past action concerning a UNC ally. With this turn of events, popular opinion swayed towards neutrality in this case, with Bloom, Tvtopia, Kaltsburg, Corvus, and others not wanting to get involved and questioning whether Evo and Thoths should be freed. This was totally unacceptable to the Red Duke, who believed Varkonia and the UNC had a responsibility to protect others from known threats, particularly considering there was foreknowledge and a capability to do so. Frustrated, the Red Duke took the matter up with the King of Nox and the Speaker of the Senate in Varkonia.

The Varkonian senate discussed leaving the UNC, realizing that the UNC had rendered itself ineffective with a bad-actor member in the form of Corvus, and members who were unwilling to commit to difficult choices in order to prevent large-scale war from breaking out. The King of Nox proposed the vote to leave the UNC.<blockquote>''Senators, should Varkonia withdraw from the United Northern Congress?'' ''Reason for leaving the UNC: We believe the way the UNC reacted to and handled the Evocator/Papa plot was unacceptable. Varkonia stands firmly behind pearling Evocator in order to stop his nefarious plans from coming to fruition. While some in the UNC claim "An attack on Hjaltland is #NotOurProblem", Varkonia believes an unjust attack that we can prevent is our responsibility to prevent, and failure to do so is not only morally corrupt, but cowardly.'' (Varkanos, 2019)<ref>https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/463425713035411467/596130874181812234/unknown.png</ref></blockquote>The Senate unanimously agreed, and the law passed. On July 3, 2019, Varkonia left the UNC. The resulting drama, chaos, and confusion left the UNC in a crippled state, and it would dissolve fully shortly thereafter.